Liberty Music Program Begins!

John Lucas, who has recently become a Japanese national TV celebrity (see video above), helped us celebrate the start of the Liberty Music Program (music program for children in the disaster area) on April 25, 2013. We are now up and running with gospel, folk, and classical music lessons in schools and other locations.

Nozomi Project: Beauty through Brokenness

The Nozomi Group will be speaking in our conference this summer and selling their jewelery! They are a great testimony as to how art built community and brought hope in the wake of the tsunami. Below is a short description of Nozomi from their website: www.nozomiproject.com. Buy their jewelery. Support their mission.

"Nozomi, translated 'hope' in Japanese, is a social enterprise bringing sustainable income, community, dignity and hope to the women in Ishinomaki, Japan by training women to craft unique jewelry products.  One third of these women are single mothers and grandmothers; most of these women and their family members lost their livelihood when the tsunami crashed through half of their city in 2011.​

Nozomi women are creating one-of-a-kind pieces of jewelry featuring broken pieces of pottery left in the wake of the tsunami (called the Shards of Hope product line), as well as other beautiful products such as kimono accessories and note cards.  Each of our product lines has been named by a Nozomi woman in honor of a loved one in her life.

As broken shards are being transformed into beautiful treasures, so too lives are being filled with renewed dignity and hope."

Community Arts Tokyo Conference

Our first conference! Will we see you there?

Download the flier

Meet Kaizen Chase Lowther!

On March 8 at 3:51 pm Kaizen Chase Lowther was born at 6 lbs, 9 oz and 18 inches. Kaizen means "Change for the good" in Japanese and Chase is a family name (Grandma Chase was born on March 8, 1913 exactly 100 years ago!), so our son's name means "Chasing after goodness" or "Seeking to make things better."

When the boys met their little brother, Aidan couldn't stop talking about how little he was and described everything about him. Eastin just wanted to play with his fingers and toes and touch his hair. Coen was a little suspicious at first of what this baby's relationship to him was but then told mommy very seriously that we had to be quiet because His baby was sleeping.

It was an earth-shaking event! There was a small earthquake soon after Kaizen was born.

On Monday, March 11, we had breakfast in bed to celebrate our anniversary...a "hospital" breakfast that is...

Community Arts Tokyo Symposium #2

Community Arts Tokyo held its second "Worship & Arts Symposium" on January 27, 2013. Worship symposiums were started to network and resource worship leaders and artists from across Japan. 67 people attended from 16 churches. The Grace City Church Tokyo worship team led us in a number of songs which can be downloaded from the Community Arts Tokyo website. Rev. Makoto Fukuda, pastor of Grace City Church Tokyo, then walked us through the experience of the gospel through the liturgy of worship.

Migiwa, a well-known singer and composer of original Japanese worship songs, joined the worship team to lead us in a number of her works including the one shown here "The Lord Is My Shepherd."

Coen Goes Sledding

Over Christmas break, we were able to take a family trip to the mountains of northwest Japan. Aidan and Eastin received their first ski lesson from me while Coen (3 years old) practiced sledding in a special fenced area for little kids.

While I was on the slopes with the older two boys, 8 month pregnant Abi needed to go to the restroom. She tried to bring Coen in the stall with her, but there simply was not enough room. (Japanese toilet stalls are so small that you often have to stand over the hole in the floor in order to close the door!) Abi told Coen to wait just outside the door. Coen did not wait.

Abi came out and just barely caught a glimpse of him running around the corner of a far building. Turning the corner of the building, she looked in horror as Coen took his sled to the edge of the ski slope and started to go down. What was he thinking! He told us later he did not like the little hill. He wanted the "BIG" hill!

Abi made it to the ski slope just in time to see a little pink and blue dot shooting down the slope like a runaway train. Coen had not yet learned how to stop or slow down! "Wham!" he flew into a large canvas "Slow Down" sign at the bottom of the hill. Not hurt but a little dazed, he sat there without crying while a crowd of skiers began to gather around. Abi eventually climbed her way down the mountain to retrieve her son.

Coen did not want to leave Mommy for the rest of the day. "Too scary!" he said. Too scary indeed!

Grace City Church Tokyo Worship

Worship at Grace City Church Tokyo in St. Luke's Chapel. For four Sundays, we had the privilege of meeting at the chapel of St. Luke's Hospital while our usual space is unavailable. Here we are singing Migiwa's original Japanese praise song "The Lord Is My Shepherd" on February 10, 2013.